Combination Ballot: A new voting system combining machine optical scanning, data processing, and manual methods is being developed by UK researchers in the hope of avoiding drawbacks with purely manual or electronic voting systems. Under development at the universities of Surrey and Birmingham, with funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and in collaboration with the University of Luxembourg, the system uses a perforated ballot paper, randomising the order of candidates names. Voters tear the paper in half after casting their vote, scan the half with the vote on (which is fed into a database), then shred the candidates’ names. Voters then keep their casting paper, and can log on to a website to view their ballot scan, ensuring tampering cannot take place:
New technology will make election voting more efficient - EPSRC: "New technology will make election voting more efficient
26/05/2010 EPSRC press release: Did you stay up all night to hear your local result during the recent election?
26 May 2010
Time-consuming manual vote-counts and ballot boxes could soon be consigned to the history books, thanks to innovative new secure voting technology.
The system is being developed by computer scientists at the Universities of Surrey and Birmingham, with funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and in collaboration with the University of Luxembourg.
Combining speed with total vote-counting accuracy, the system is unique because it will integrate state-of-the-art optical scanning, data processing and encryption with the tried-and-tested process of manually writing on a ballot paper."